


The First Day of Forever

by bandersnatch72



Category: Gilmore Girls
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2019-07-02 17:10:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15800967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bandersnatch72/pseuds/bandersnatch72
Summary: When Lorelai brings her friend Sarah to Star's Hollow, Sarah majorly falls for Luke.





	The First Day of Forever

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own any Gilmore Girls characters

The day Lorelai Gilmore brought her friend Sarah to Luke’s Diner for coffee was the day Luke Danes’ heart did something it hadn’t done in a long time. It started to beat again. Lorelai and Sarah walked in and sat at Lorelai’s usual table. Luke knew Lorelai would want coffee, so he grabbed the carafe and started over. Lorelai smiled when she saw him walking over to their table.

  
“Hey Luke, this is Sarah. She’s in my business class. We have a project due Monday, but I’ve been working so much, we haven’t had the time to work together.” Lorelai picked up her coffee cup and took a deep breath before starting to drink.

  
“It’s Friday. Don’t you have a dinner thing with your parents tonight?” Luke asked while pouring coffee for Sarah.

  
“Yeah, but Rory’s gonna tell my mother I have homework, which she’ll just love. Sarah’s gonna spend the night at the house. We’ll order something from Al’s, drink coffee… it’ll be great. Uh, can we get two burgers to-go?”

  
“Ah, don’t go to Al’s. Let me bring you guys food. I can get Cesar to cover. You know you never get enough food from Al’s the way you two eat, and you want to feed another person? Nah, let me do it.” Luke looked at Lorelai before starting to back up.

  
“I guess. If you really want to, I mean, we’d be fine with takeout. But I guess your food is a bit better than Al’s.” Lorelai wondered why Luke was all but insisting on this. He was normally just fine with the Gilmore girls getting takeout. He does usually have something to say about the way they eat, but this was new. She looked at Sarah, who was gazing at Luke’s back as he walked to the kitchen to get their food.

  
She lowered her voice and turned to Sarah, “Sarah, whatcha doin?” She gave Luke a look before turning back to Sarah to give her an odd gaze.

  
“Admiring the display. Boy, can he walk away. What do you know about him?” She was still watching Luke as he talked to other customers.

  
“I don’t know, I’ve been friends with him since I moved here before Rory was born. He owns the diner and makes the best coffee in town. Uh, he lives in an apartment upstairs, and he never takes that baseball cap off. Why?” Lorelai gave her a weird look again.

  
“No reason, I like to a bit about people I’m interested in. Hmm, what else? Oh, how old is he?” Sarah told her as she picked up her coffee.

  
“He’s, like, 35 or something. Why does that matter?” Lorelai finished her coffee with a couple long pulls after answering.

  
“Because I’ll be 23 in December. And I know there’s like 12 years between you and me, but age doesn’t matter in friendships. But if I decide to go after the plaid man with the great ass, I’d like to know if he’s old enough to be my father.” Sarah gave Lorelai a pointed look before going back to watching Luke, who was starting to walk back in their direction. She quickly looked away before he noticed.

  
When he’d made it back to their table, they both acted like Sarah hadn’t said anything. Although, Sarah may have given Luke a glance more than was usual for someone just dropping off food.

  
“Thanks, Luke.” Sarah smiled after thanking him, causing him to take a step back.

  
“Uh, you’re welcome. Do, uh, you want ketchup or something?” He gave Lorelai a look, who just shrugged. “I’ll, uh, be, uh… over there.” He put the paper bags down and quickly walked back to the counter, looking down and shaking his head. Sarah and Lorelai giggled as they got up to pay.

  
Lorelai went up to the counter, leaving Sarah by their table. When she finished paying, and they were walking toward the door, Sarah looked back at Luke. Catching his eye, she winked. Luke quickly looked down, but Sarah could tell he was blushing. She turned back and walked out with Lorelai, making sure to swing her hips a bit more than usual.

  
When Lorelai and Sarah arrived at Lorelai’s house, Rory, Lorelai’s 16-year-old daughter, came outside to meet them. She hugged Lorelai and introduced herself to Sarah.

  
“I’m Rory. You’re… Sarah, mom’s project buddy. I love your hair!” This made Sarah reach up and touch her short grey hair, still not really used to having this short, or this color.

  
“Thanks, I just got it done. It used to be half way down my back, kinda like yours actually. Same color too. But I needed a change, because it’d been the same since like junior high.” She smiled and pulled the strap of her bag higher up on her shoulder. Lorelai was already up the steps, looking for something in her bag.

  
Rory was still looking at Sarah’s hair, wishing she could pull off something like that. She told Sarah as they got to the door, which Lorelai had left open for them, “Just to let you know, you’ll probably be doing more work than mom. She has the attention span of a kitten. Actually, kittens probably pay attention longer than she does. We just have to make sure there’s lots and lots of coffee.” They both laughed.

  
Lorelai looked back toward the entryway, where Rory and Sarah were talking. She pressed the button on their answering machine, half listening as her daughter talked to her new friend.

  
“What do you mean, we? You’re going to your grandparents for dinner, remember? We don’t get to skip on the same night.” Lorelai came around the corner into the living room with a fresh cup of coffee in each hand. Rory looked at her mom, ready to argue, but she knew someone had to go to dinner with her grandparents. She went to her room to change out of her school uniform before dinner.

  
Lorelai handed Sarah a mug and plopped down next to her. “So, ready to get started? Or, we could eat first if you want.”

  
Sarah leaned back, taking a deep breath of coffee vapor before taking a long drink. “Can we save the burgers for tomorrow? I kinda want to wait till Luke brings us food later.” She gave a gentle laugh, mostly into her mug. Lorelai could see the look on Sarah’s face as she drank her coffee, she could tell she was still thinking about Luke.

  
She didn’t know how far things might go between Sarah and Luke, if anything even started, but she didn’t want either of her friends to get hurt. She just wanted her friends to be happy. And that meant helping them in any way she could.  
They sat and talked while drinking their coffee. They talked about school and food and guys and a bit of everything else. Every once in a while, one would get up to refresh their cup or use the bathroom, but they had yet to start on their project. For their project, they were meant to interview two different business owners and compare their ways of running their business. At this point, one of the business owners was Lorelai herself, but they weren’t sure of the other. Lorelai thought about who she could ask in town, people like Luke, or Taylor Doose who ran the mini-mart.

  
At around 5:30, Sarah and Lorelai helped Rory get ready for dinner at Lorelai’s parent’s house, talking about the best ways to get coffee stains out of different types of clothing. Sarah looked through Rory’s books while Lorelai did Rory’s hair and makeup. When Rory was ready to leave, Lorelai jokingly told her to be home by 9ish, because if dinner took longer than that, she was launching a search party. After Rory left, Sarah went to make more coffee; leaving Lorelai back in the living room to set up for their interview. And yes, it was cheating a little using Lorelai as one of their business owners.

  
Lorelai and Sarah refilled their cups a few times before Luke arrived. When Lorelai got up for coffee around 6:30, she heard footsteps coming up the front steps. She went to let Luke in, wondering what food he brought. When he knocked, she let him in; asking if he wanted something to drink. Sarah got up and came around the corner as Lorelai and Luke walked toward the kitchen.

  
Luke stood by the counter, leaving Sarah room to squeeze behind him to get to the coffee pot, or so she said. As she went behind him, her chest brushed against his back, and she heard his breath hitch. She smiled to herself as she poured a new cup of coffee before joining the conversation around the table, what food went with what and what might need heating up again.

  
Lorelai excused herself to go use the upstairs bathroom, leaving Luke and Sarah together. Sarah moved from her seat across the table from Luke to the seat directly next to him.

  
“Hey.” She leaned forward on her elbows. Luke suddenly became very interested in a loose napkin that’d been left on the table. He wouldn’t look at Sarah. She poked his arm. She tried again. “Hey.” He slowly turned his head to look at her. “Hey.” He looked at her, really looked at her. Why was this woman whom he’d only met that morning having this effect on him?

  
She looked away, pulling the sleeves of her oversized sweater over her hands. “So… do you want to go get coffee or something sometime?” Sarah asked, letting her hair fall from behind her ears to hide her face. Suddenly compulsion hit Luke to brush her hair away from her face. He leaned forward, catching the smell of her light perfume. Then he seemed to remember something and sat back suddenly. He looked down at his now clasped hands in his lap, no sure what to say or do. Sarah looked over at him, pushing her thick hair back.

  
“It’s just a date, Luke. I’m not asking for dinner or marriage or anything. Just coffee or something. I get a cup; you get a cup. We sit and drink. Maybe talk a little. That’s it, really. All I’m doing is asking a guy I think is attractive if he would like to spend a little bit of time with me, just the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee. Then, if you want, I’ll go away back to Hartford and you’ll never hear from me again. That sound fair?” She got up and walked over to refill her cup again. Luke looked up, looked at her.

  
He wondered what someone like her could possibly see in someone like him. She was like 20 and he hadn’t been 20 in almost as many years. She was beautiful, he knew she was wearing makeup because her very full lips were the color of dark wine, but she was flawless. She had grayish purple hair cut short above her shoulders; which Luke thought would look terrible on anyone else, but looked amazing on her. She was wearing dark jeans that fit her curves; with this loose knit grey sweater that fell off one shoulder, which also looked amazing on her.

  
And Luke couldn’t stop staring at her. She turned around with a cup of coffee raised to her dark lips, looking at Luke through the steam. And Luke knew.

  
“Sure, I mean, it sounds great. Um... tomorrow?” He felt his face get warm, and he got up to start repacking empty boxes from the food. He’d done it, he’d talked to her; and he still wasn’t sure why it’d been so hard. He had a date with Sarah, and now he didn’t know what he was going to do tomorrow. And he had to tell Lorelai.

  
When Lorelai came back downstairs, Luke and Sarah had cleaned up the kitchen, and bagged up the trash. Luke was leaning against the counter, looking at his shoes; while Sarah sat at the table drinking coffee. They weren’t talking or looking at each other, though Sarah kept glancing over at him. Lorelai looked between them for a while before going to get herself more coffee. She sat at the table with Sarah, then turned to Luke.

  
“How’s Cesar doing tonight? Is the restaurant really busy? Or are we your only customers?” She laughed, but she could tell Luke wasn’t laughing. He was slowly turning red, still concentrating on his shoes. She looked over at Sarah, who was looking at Luke.

  
“Um… so, what’s going on in here?” Lorelai was getting uncomfortable. She knew Sarah was interested in Luke, and she knew that Sarah could be very forward at times.

  
Sarah looked over at her. “We have a date tomorrow. No location or time, but there will be drinks and Luke and I will be there. So, yeah.” She went back to drinking coffee and glancing over at Luke.

  
“Speaking of Cesar, I should probably get back to the diner. Help close up and everything. Um… see you guys later, I guess.” He pushed off from the counter and went to pick up the box with the leftovers in it. “Are you sure you don’t want these; because I know that fridge is empty.” He was trying to avoid looking at Sarah, talking at the table because he wasn’t looking at Lorelai either.

  
“Yeah Luke. We’re fine. We have some stuff from Al’s and some week-old pizza. We’re fine.” Lorelai’s attempt to get Luke to smile didn’t work. He looked like he was ready to bolt from the room. Lorelai wondered what exactly he and Sarah had talked about while she was upstairs.

  
When Luke had left the room, Sarah finally looked up from her cup. She looked over at Lorelai and smirked before getting up and walking toward the living room. But when she passed the entryway, she saw that Luke was still standing there, facing the door. She stood watching him, deciding what to do. When his hand went to the handle, she knew.

  
She walked toward him, and put her hand on his. “Luke…”

  
He turned slowly, and when he did; his eyes met hers. Her back was against the door, his hands brushing the waistband at the back of her jeans. She put her arms around his neck, feeling the soft curls falling under the bill of his backwards cap. His lips were soft and warm, meeting hers halfway. At first it was about learning and exploring, but then it was about need and hunger. Then they remembered Lorelai was in the next room.

  
Luke heard the chair scrape before Sarah registered it, and he slowly pushed back on the door. Their breathing had slowed by the time Lorelai came around the corner, looking to the untrained eye as new friends saying goodbye for the night. Lorelai knew better, but she didn’t say anything. Because she could see Luke’s face, and she didn’t want to ruin that.

  
Later that night, after Rory had come back from dinner, Lorelai and Sarah were watching some TV show while they finalized their first interview. After all, there really weren't that many business owners in Stars Hollow to begin with. So, using Lorelai as one of their interviews was only cheating a little bit. And if things worked out the way Sarah wanted them to, and things weren't awkward with Luke, then he could be their other interview.

  
And speaking of Luke, Sarah needed to find out when their “date” was. Or, she could just show up at the diner the next day. Either one worked for her, but she didn't want to scare Luke off or make things difficult for anyone. Especially between Luke and Lorelai.

  
While Sarah was spacing out, Lorelai got up to go get dessert. When she was walking past the kitchen windows, she saw Luke sitting out on the back porch. When had he come back? So, she went out and sat next to him on the hanging swing by the railing. He looked up from he was absently chipping the paint off the arm rest.

  
“Hey Lorelai. You know you need to paint your swing? It's chipping really bad.” He gave a sheepish smile before getting up and leaning with his back against the railing and pushing his hands in his front pockets.

  
Lorelai gave him a sideways look before beginning.  
“So, you're really gonna go out with Sarah tomorrow? You know she's only 22, right?” She got up too and leaned against the railing before crossing her arms.

  
Luke only shrugged. He hasn't known there was that much of an age difference. He'd assumed she was Lorelai's age. It didn't really change his mind though, not with the way she made him feel. And it only been a few hours. What was happening to him? He was a grown man, and yet he felt like he was in high school.

  
“I like her, Lorelai. I don't know what it is, there's just something about her. I think I really like her.” He turned, facing the small back yard.  
Lorelai sighed. “Then go and tell her when you want to see her tomorrow.” She poked his arm.

  
“But won't she think it's weird that I came back? Not everyone is ok with strange men showing up in their yard.” He laughed half-heartedly, glancing over his shoulder through the kitchen windows.

  
He looked back at Lorelai, “Can you tell her?”

  
“Sure, Luke. What time?” Lorelai would do anything to help her friends, even if it meant playing telephone.

  
“Around 6? I'll have something figured out by then.” He gave Lorelai a hug before walking across the yard and leaving through the back gate.

  
The next day, after the girls were fortified with massive amounts of caffeine, Rory had a study group to go to, and Lorelai found out she had to go into work for a bit, because the inn she ran would crumble without her. So, Lorelai and Sarah dropped Rory off at her friend's house before driving to the inn. They figured whatever the staff needed Lorelai for wouldn't take long, and then they could have lunch there.

  
Apparently, someone had logged out of the main computer, which after being rebooted, refused to open the program they used to check guests in and out. Lorelai had to call their tech guy, who took an hour to come in just to tell them to restart the computer. But after that, Lorelai and Sarah had lunch a bit after two, and then Sarah wanted to go buy something cute for later.

  
Lorelai told her some of the nice places they had in town, five different clothing stores, in a town so small. So, Sarah would have choices. They ended up at this little vintage boutique where Sarah found the most beautiful dress. It was light teal with a sweetheart neckline and ruffles around the bottom. The halter straps made it the most adorable pinup dress Sarah had seen in a while, and she had to have it.

  
They wandered around town for a while, looking in shop windows and sipping coffee they’d picked up. When it got closer to six, they picked Rory up and headed back to the house so Sarah could get ready. Lorelai pinned Sarah’s hair back in a French twist but left the front loose, while Sarah did her own makeup, going for a berry pinup (she didn’t do red lipstick).

  
She was going to walk, but Lorelai insisted on driving her, and on the full story upon her return. At just a little after six, Sarah opened the door to the diner to find Luke standing at the base of the stairs to his apartment. He’d managed to clean up some, trading plaid for a plain flannel and ditching the cap. His dark hair brushed a bit lower than the top of his ears, with soft curls toward the ends. He’d also shaved, but it had been early enough in the day that the five o’clock shadow had begun to show.

  
When Sarah had crossed the diner, he held a curtain aside to allow her to pass, revealing the staircase that led to the apartment upstairs. The stairs were narrow but comfortable, with Sarah leading and Luke close behind. At the top of the stairs, there was another door. Luke reached around her to open it, lightly brushing against her.

  
Once inside, Sarah saw a small table set for two. It had everything from the plates and glasses to a bottle of red wine, a small vase holding a few wildflowers and two tall taper candles burning in their metal bases. Luke let the door close and walked around her to pull one of the chairs out for her.

  
Sarah didn’t know what she had expected, but she hadn’t expected a candlelit dinner. Maybe a few cups of coffee and some fries downstairs or something. But as she took the seat offered to her, all previous expectations and thoughts of any kind raced from her mind, instead focusing on the man who’d just pushed her seat in and was walking the short distance to his own.

  
Luke poured two glasses of wine, one for Sarah and one for himself. He then settled back in his chair, steepling his fingers and resting his chin on their points, carefully watching Sarah across the table. She slowly reached forward for her glass and took a small sip of wine before beginning to speak.

  
“So, this is nice. Um… is there food?” She stared at her glass, rolling the stem between her fingers.

  
“Yeah. I uh… made chicken alfredo with bacon and broccoli. I hope you like it. I kind of asked Lorelai what foods you liked.” He leaned forward and put his arms on the table.

  
“Including the wine?” Sarah asked with a small smile. Luke nodded slightly, returning the timid smile. Sarah was about to say something else, when a timer went off.

  
Luke got up to turn the timer off and take garlic bread out of the oven. He then took the lid off a large skillet which had been simmering on the back burner and turned both the oven and stove off. He moved the pasta into a serving bowl and put the garlic bread in a basket. Sarah asked if he needed help and he let her carry the garlic bread to the table. Once there, he served the pasta and Sarah put two pieces of garlic bread next to each plate.

  
At first they just sat and ate, occasionally looking across the table at each other. Luke was the first one to break the silence, asking what Sarah and Lorelai had done earlier in the day.

  
“We had to go to the inn because of some computer glitch then we had lunch. They have the best chef there,” then looking down at her plate, she added, “but this is the best chicken alfredo I’ve ever had." She smiled, still not quite full wattage, and Luke almost blushed.

  
“And then we went shopping downtown and I bought this dress. The shoes are Lorelai’s though.” She smiled again, almost at full brilliance, momentarily dazzling Luke. “By the way, how are there three shops that sell nothing but porcelain cats, yet there’s no coffee shop?”

  
“Actually, Wanda’s sells porcelain turtles too.” Luke laughed, acknowledging the weirdness of his small town. “And, if we had a coffee shop, I wouldn’t have such loyal customers like Lorelai.” Sarah laughed along this time.

  
“You know she gets coffee other places when we’re in Hartford, right?” She said with a smile. “She wouldn’t survive if she had to wait to have coffee until she got home.”

  
Luke laughed, a low chuckle that emanated from somewhere deep in his chest. “I think if we talk anymore about Lorelai, we’ll have to invite her on our next date. I’ve known her for over half my life. I want… to know more about you. Like, did you grow up in Connecticut?” He took a sip of wine.

  
“Actually, I grew up in Idaho. In little town called Spirit Lake, it’s about 50 miles from British Columbia. I moved to Connecticut five years ago, after I graduated high school, to live my aunt. But just before last semester started, so early August, she found out she had breast cancer. Then just before Christmas, she had her first stroke. So she moved into assisted care and I had to move into campus housing.” Her voice dropped before adding, “my church group is praying for her.” She looked down before apologizing for sharing too much.

  
“No, I love that you care so much about your aunt. I hope her treatments go well.” A pause. “I’ve always wanted to go to the west coast. Is it nice in Idaho?” He tried to ease the tension in the air.

  
“Uh, yeah. It’s beautiful. Especially eastern Washington, northern Idaho, and like western Montana. My family actually went to Glacier National Park the summer before I moved. It’s really beautiful over there.” The awkwardness from Sarah’s previous story dissipated as she talked about where she grew up.

  
The rest of the night passed, not letting up on the heavy conversation. They talked about what led them to where they were. Luke talked about losing his father a few years back and his difficult relationship with his mother. Sarah added that her mother was on anxiety medication and that her father was serving life in the state prison back in Idaho.

  
When the food had been cleared away, they sat on the couch and talked more. They learned a lot about each other. Luke had almost become a high school teacher and Sarah wanted to be a college professor. After they finished the bottle of wine, Sarah fell asleep against Luke’s shoulder. He called Lorelai to tell her he’d bring Sarah back to her place in the morning, but not to worry because she was completely safe at his place.

  
He gently laid Sarah down in his bed, taking her shoes off and pulling the comforter up to cover her. He then grabbed a couple blankets from the closet and the extra pillow off the bed and settled in on the couch. He might have a crick in his neck in the morning, but he was not making Sarah sleep on his battered old couch. He’d have to remember to tell Cesar he’d be a bit late down in the diner in the morning.


End file.
